


With your heart like a stone you spared no time in lashing out

by Tabata



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 15:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13527570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: Celes has not been acting like himself lately. He sleeps very little, has terrible nightmares and claims to hear voices. But he crosses the line when, during the third week of the games celebrating his first year as a seer, he condemns four people to death with the accuse of betryal without any proof. Shocked, Langley and Shannen are left to wonder what's happening to their boyfriend.





	With your heart like a stone you spared no time in lashing out

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by the COW-T verse, created for the "Clash of the Writing Titans" challenge by Lande di Fandom's admin, specifically by the last installment of the story.
> 
> Written for: Lande di Fandom's COW-T 8

Two years ago he was chasing Celes down the halls of the academy and teasing Shannen when Celes wasn't looking. His only problem was not to make one angry while giving pleasure to the other. Those two solved the problem for him deciding that he could belong to both of them.

Two years ago Celes wasn't even completely Celes yet – he had two breasts and no cock – and still things were way easier than they are now. Shannen and Langley's biggest fear was to touch Celes the wrong way, triggering something that would make him sad or angry with himself. They walked on eggshells every day of their life, and yet they were content and hopeful and happy.

Langley remembers what it was like to huddle up in Shannen's bed during the week-ends, annoying him to no end because he wanted to be left alone and they would camp in his room for three days. Langley or Celes – mostly Langley, because Celes was still a little afraid of disturbing Shannen at the time – would show up on Friday afternoon after class with enough food and water to last them 72 hours, and Shannen would know they were going to hardly leave the bed, let alone the room. Celes would come a little later, covering as much of his body as he could, and they would spend the rest of the time getting him naked.

Langley has never had any problems with Celes' body. And neither did Shannen. Not when it was all female – and they had to pretend it wasn't so – not when it became completely male, not in that awkward phase when it was neither. For them, if not for him, what makes Celes who he is has always lied in his inner nature, not in the body parts he has. It's his heart they love, not specifically his body, even tho it's the most precious thing they both have ever seen.

He remembers one time, Celes was at the beginning of transition and they had all been together for about six weeks; Langley found him in his room, the big mirror covered with a blanket and such an amount of clothes scattered around the room that you would have thought some fabric cargo had exploded inside a tailor shop and then that had exploded too, dumping an excess of wardrobe in Celes' room. He didn't ask what was wrong, because that was clear. Sometimes Celes couldn't recognize his reflection in the mirror and that would send him into depression. Langley had moved aside a pile of pants and sat on the bed, pretending the room wasn't a mess at all. "You look smart," he had said, casually. "And fierce." Celes had frowned and looked at him with a puzzled face. "Definitely adventurous and passionate."

And he had gone on for half an hour, spitting out adjectives that had nothing to do with Cele's body at all. At some point Celes had burst into laugh and he had pleaded him to be quiet because he sounded like a dictionary and he couldn't take it anymore. Shannen had found them in bed, of course, because at that point touching Celes had become essential for Langley, even if he had made sure that was another way to tell him, one more time, how freaking beautiful he was. The rest of the night had gone by in whispers: each other's names, mostly, and all those words Celes was too afraid to say out loud about his body.

It wasn't just lust and it wasn't just love, it was knowledge; of Celes first, of each other later. They knew what made their clocks ticking. There was no dancing around each other to avoid disaster, there was a very precise choreography they were all willing to perform. 

Two years are seven hundred and thirty days, and they feel like an eternity now.  
“None of this makes any sense.”

Langley has lost count of the times Shannen has said those words in the past twenty-four hours, and none of those times has even slightly changed the situation they're in. But he understands that Shannen needs to say it aloud over and over again because his other option would be destroy things and it doesn't seem the right moment to look like a crazy person. Not now that Celes is not there to vouch for them against the court.

He found out with regret that thinking about Celes is painful, and this is something that had never happened to him before; not for the dozens of people he's been with just for one night, let alone for the only person in the world he was willing to stop looking around. They have overcome a lot of problems – from Shannen's father to Celes' family, to laws that are against them and yet they are very determined to tackle head on – and yet nothing has ever made him feel so beaten up like the look in Celes eyes last night.

Celes has been weird all week – what with the nightmares and all – but this is way beyond anything they had imagined. This wasn't even in the realm of possibilities, not for a person like Celes who didn't even want a real war, as it would have been perfectly acceptable for a seer, and decided to address the problem by organizing a celebration instead. Langley was so shocked when he condemned the four champions that he couldn't even speak anymore. 

"We need to do something," Shannen turns towards him, his arms crossed to his chest and a worried expression on his face. His bright blue eyes are so upset that Langley would think he's about to cry if he didn't know better. Shannen would blind himself before crying in front of someone else.

"Something like what? The palace is basically on lockdown," he comments, looking through the window at the square where all went down. They actually are _inside_ the palace, but it's still like being outside looking in because Celes gave the order and then barricaded himself in his quarters, part of his family closing in around him protectively. "Let alone that I shouldn't even be here. I expect an eviction notice at any given moment."

Shannen snorts, annoyed. "He would never throw you out, Langley."

"Are you sure about that?" They look at each other for a very long moment and the fact that Shannen doesn't hurry to confirm his theory is proof enough that they're both thinking the same thing and they are both equally worried.

Celes would never leave Langley behind because of his heritage. _This_ Celes might. _This_ Celes looks like he could get rid of Shannen too. What's left unsaid between them is that they don't know _this_ Celes. And it didn't start with the four champions' death sentence. It started long before that, they just ignored it because it was scary.

It started with the nightmares and Celes waking up upset and confused, with the voices that he claims to hear, with him shaking them off himself when they tried to comfort him, wanting more and more to be alone until on that stage, yesterday, he looked at them both and saw through them.

"We should talk to someone who could do something, then."

"Who, exactly?" He asks, gently. "Do you think Lacros would listen to us?"

"Well, he didn't agree with him!" Shannen says, nervously. "He might want to hear what we have to say. And if he doesn't, we will go to Cyprian or Abilene. Fuck, I'll go to Manila herself if nobody listens to me. In fact, we should go straight to her, 'cause she's the only one who has power over him."

"That might prove to be well beyond our powers."

"His mother knows something, Langley!"

Langley sighs. "I know," he nods, looking down. He thought so when she saw the former seer's face at the mention of the nightmares. She might not know what exactly is happening, but she must have an idea. "I just don't see her taking our side against him."

"We are not against him," Shannen whispers.

Langley looks up. "We are against what he wants right now," he says, honestly, "because he wouldn't want it anymore if he was himself."

He feel Shannen getting angry before the other guy even speaks. It's a vibration in the air, something that gives Langley goosebumps. "So, you don't want to do anything!" He accuses him. "You know what? You're right! Let's not get involved! Let's watch as he kills four people, or maybe a hundred! He might wake up tomorrow and feel like wanting to kill some other traitors he took out of his ass overnight! Let's see how bad it gets!"

"I didn't say that, Shannen," Langley sighs, patiently. He stands up because he feels the need to contain all this rage that's swirling around his boyfriend like an invisible wind. He doesn't know if it's energy or magic or just the fact that he's extremely receptive to him right now.

"What is gonna happen when you'll need blood?" Shannen screams, his voice breaking at the end. "He's not in there, Lang! It's not him!"

Langley pulls him into a hug and prepares himself to battle Shannen to keep him there. Shannen struggles, but only for a while and then gives in, holding aggressively at Langley's shirt. "I don't know what to do," he confesses in a whisper.

Neither does Langley, and that's the most painful things of all. The people he loves are hurting and he has no way to ease that pain. It was so easy, seven hundred and thirty days ago, when the only voices they could hear were their own as they whispered each other's names.


End file.
